


Sad Axolotl

by crabmoss



Series: Shapeshifter au [3]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Brothers, Fluff, It’s going in the shapeshifter au, axolotl, because it technically is, its very happy, neptune the axolotl, this ones just :DDD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:22:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24157324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crabmoss/pseuds/crabmoss
Summary: In which Stef is given a new friend in the form of an axolotl to take care of, but the Witch has other plans for this new friend and makes him Stef’s brother, instead.
Series: Shapeshifter au [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1516475
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Sad Axolotl

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a post by @neon-rat on tumblr about Kobra being the human version of a baby axolotl and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head all day, so here’s a fic in which that is taken quite literally.
> 
> The name has nothing to do with the work but my dear Ruin came up with it and I wanted to use it! <3

“Stef, honey!” It was Stef’s mother. She was calling him from his room in their apartment, and he came running to greet her. She never called out for him like this when she got home from work! This must mean she had good news for him.

“Mom!” Stef hugged her and his head- only twelve and none the wiser to the world outside his own- just came up to her chest. He’d always been considered short for his age, so that height was good enough for him.

“Hello,” she loosely wrapped her right arm around his back in return, since she had a large box in the other hand. Was this for Stef?

“What’s in the box?” He asked.

She handed it to him very carefully. “Don’t drop it and open it in your room.” She advised him.

Stef followed her instructions and quickly headed back to his room, carefully holding the heavy package out in front of him. His mom didn’t follow him back, and he was kind of glad. He wanted to open the box! He set it down on his desk and used the scissors he kept there to rip off the tape. It had holes in the side, which was suspicious, but he didn’t dwell as the final piece of tape came off and the flaps opened.

Inside was a glass tank, and on top of that was a note that read ‘sorry I can’t give you a sibling, Stef. Hope this is sufficient.’ No emotion in that at all but now he was just more excited to see what was in the glass tank, maybe it could be a lizard from the desert.

He pulled out the tank to see it was three-quarters of the way full with water, and was greeted by a very small pink face. He knew what this was, it was an axolotl— and a baby at that. Battery City had retained their genes from before the wars and recently started breeding them as pets for the city residents. He was very happy to have one, even if it wasn’t a sibling. 

“Hello,” he waved at it through the glass and it seemed to just slightly wave back. Stef laughed and put his head on the desk so they were eye-level. “What should I name you? Gill? No...” He thought for a minute before he  _ knew _ what he’d be naming the axolotl. “I’ll call you Neptune.” Stef smiled, he was happy with that name. It was his favorite planet, after all.

Neptune swished back and forth before finding a place to rest on a rock, and Stef sat there watching him for nearly two hours, completely fascinated with the little guy. He found some treats and food in the side in the box, and he decided to give a little food cube to Neptune, so he would feel welcome in his new environment. 

Stef sighed as he watched Neptune eat. “You’re not a sibling, but I definitely think you’ll have to do.” He was happy with him, and was going to make sure to take good care of him. He didn’t want Neptune dying anytime soon, especially since he was a baby.

“Stef!” His mother called. “Dinner!” 

Stef waved goodbye to Neptune and walked much slower to the kitchen than he had when he first got the package. Now it was just whatever BLI approved meal he’d be eating for the millionth time in a row, nothing special like an axolotl.

“How do you like your new friend?” Stef’s mom asked.

Stef nodded and spoke with food in his mouth, despite his mom always telling him not to do that. He did it solely for that reason. “I like him a lot.”

“What did you name him?”

“Neptune.” He said with content. It was such a cute name for a salamander like that; he thought it was hilarious and adorable all at once.

“Good name.” She commented and that was the end of the conversation.

After dinner Stef first went to his nighttime class that all twelve year olds went to, which was meant to help him get to the job he was meant for in life. There were different ones, and Stef was in the broadcasting class because he apparently had a charismatic personality. He enjoyed it there- he did like talking in front of people-, but all he could think about the whole time was Neptune and how he was doing. Was he alright? The teacher yelled at him and he snapped out of it, but the axolotl remained at the back of his mind until he left class.

Once he got home from that class, his mother always went straight to bed and Stef could either stay up another twenty minutes or go to bed as well, and of course he chose to go to bed—or at least his room. 

What he was greeted with in his room was most certainly not Neptune  _ or _ city approved. “Oh, hello.”

“Who are you?” Asked Stef. Who was this person sitting on his desk in one of Stef’s old tank tops, a pair of shorts, and round sunglasses. This was not anyone he knew and no one was allowed in after nine, so how did they get here?

“Neptune, I think.” They looked to be about Stef’s age, almost exactly, although a bit taller than Stef, but that was to be expected. Neptune’s tank was still intact on the desk, but lacking Neptune. Was this really his axolotl but… a person? Stef didn’t think things like this could happen, he thought that a creature was what it was and that was it.

“How?”

Neptune shrugged. “I dunno, I thought you did.”

“Well… if you’re gonna be here, we might as well give you a proper name, is that okay?” Stef asked. He wanted to make sure Neptune  _ wanted _ to participate in this with Stef.

“Yeah, of course, whatever you want.”

“Right, how about Marco?” It wasn’t the greatest name, and it was just the first thing in Stef’s mind, but he thought it might fit.

Neptune, no, Marco nodded. “Yeah, actually. That’s nice.” Much to Stef’s surprise, he named the axolotl-become-person in front of him. What a strange thing to think.

“Hello, Marco.” He grinned. “I’m Stef.”

“Hi Stef.” Marco smiled a very small, flat smile. “So I can stay here?”

“Yeah!” Stef put his arm around Marco for the first, but most certainly not the last time. “You can be like… my brother.”

“I like that.” Marco nodded his approval and the two sat on Stef’s bed to get to know each other.

Somewhere in the desert the Phoenix Witch smiled, and thus the venom brothers were born.

**Author's Note:**

> Axolotls are so cute, they’re just lovely. I’m glad axolotl Kobra wouldn’t get out of my head because now we have this! :)


End file.
